Fall of the Queen's Gambit Rise of Oliver Queen
by Madhatter1981
Summary: What if Oliver wasn't the one who was cheating with Sara Lance, how might Oliver's story play out/would he still be required to save Starling City?


**Fall of The Queen's Gambit, rise of Oliver Queen**

**A/N:** Don't own, don't get any compensation, just for fun.

**A/N 2****: **Beta'd by MerlinOfTheShire

Oliver Queen laid on his bed in his stateroom on the Queen's Gambit, books and papers scattered around him. Looking over to the nightstand, Oliver smiled at the picture of his girlfriend, Laurel Lance smiling at him. Laurel was one of the main reasons he was on this boat, she had been pressuring him that they should get their own apartment and move in together. Oliver wasn't sure why he was against the idea, he had stopped cheating on Laurel months ago and committed to her in an exclusive relationship. The pregnancy scare with Samantha Clayton had put him on the straight and narrow, relationship wise. This trip he was taking with his father was, oddly enough, part of that recommitment plan.

Laurel had been hinting at that they should get their own place and move in together. This, along with Laurel occasionally bringing up the idea that Oliver should re-apply to college, ever since he and Tommy had dropped out, a year and a half ago, had caused Oliver to start panicking, feeling like he was being attacked by to many issues at once. Robert, seeing how stressed out his son was getting, suggested the cruise that they were currently on.

Oliver, ever since he boarded the Queen's Gambit, had begun to wonder whether he would have been better off staying in Starling City, discussing what Laurel had been wanting to talk to him about. His father had told him that he would help Oliver figure out what his short term plans for his future should be, but Oliver hadn't seen hide nor hair of his father since a brief moment after they crossed international waters, when the elder Queen had stopped by Oliver's stateroom, and the man said that he was heading to his stateroom to take a nap and that they'd talk at dinner. Realizing that he was hungry and thinking that his father might be too, Oliver headed to where his father was.

As he got closer to his father's stateroom, Oliver was surprised to hear more than one voice coming from the room. Stopping for a moment and listening, Oliver was shocked to hear what sounded like his girlfriend's sister, Sara's voice, coming from his father's stateroom. After a few moments pause, Oliver pushed open the door, what he saw inside changed the path his life was on.

There was his father cuddling up on the couch with someone who was decidedly not his mother, wearing what looked like just a men's dress shirt. After he got over his shock, Oliver realized that the women that was straddling his father's lap and making out with him was who he had thought it was, his girlfriend's sister, Sara Lance.

It was at that moment that Oliver had an epiphany, that this must be close to what Laurel feels whenever she learned about Oliver unthinkingly cheating on her, yet she had taken him back anyways. Oliver swore that he would be a better partner to Laurel, the kind of man that she deserved, not one that she had to settle for. Oliver was brought out of his musing by his father addressing him. As he looked up it was to see his father coming towards him, while Sara was ducking into the adjoining bathroom.

"Son, I can see that you might have some things you want to say, just give me a moment to speak before you ask any questions that you might have. Things haven't been good between your mother and me for quite some time now. Thirteen years ago, or thereabouts, your mother had an affair that she doesn't think I know about with Malcolm Merlyn, after his wife died in a mugging, as a means of providing comfort to Malcolm during that time. As a result of that affair we were blessed with Thea." Upon hearing that his sister was the production of an affair, Oliver ironically started to rise to his mother's defense before he was stopped by his father.

"Now, as I can see that you want to come to your mother's defense; you will remember that thirteen years ago I was spending most of my time overseas setting up relations with China and other members of our Asian partners. While I would love for Thea to biologically be mine, the timing doesn't work out. That doesn't mean that I don't love Thea any more than I love you. However, your mother's betrayal of our wedding vows put me into a bit of a tailspin, I decided that if Moira wasn't going to abide by the vows we swore, than neither would I. Though we've done our best to keep it from both you and your sister, both Moira and I have had an open relationship for the last twelve years or so." Robert stopped speaking to pour a glass of whiskey from a bottle on the bar to their right. After offering a glass to his son and getting a shake of the head no, Robert continued his explanation.

"That's how your mother and my's relationship has been the last twelve years or so, partners in business, if not life. If you want to know a secret, once Thea has graduated college, and has set herself up in whatever career she wants, I plan to divorce your mother. Now before you attack me, just hear me out." While still shocked, suffering from a major information overload, Oliver still rose to defend his mother; at his father's request, Oliver sat back and glared, but let the older man speak.

"So you can see, Oliver, this is not the first time anyone in our family has cheated. As I've already stated, your sister, Thea, is the result of an affair your mother had with Merlyn, your friend Tommy's father. As such she not actually my daughter, even though I love her like one. Your mother doesn't think I know, and I've kept my peace about it for the sake of family harmony. While this doesn't absolve my actions, I hope that it somewhat explains them." Seeing that his son seemed to still be quite shocked and wanting to give him some time to come to grips with what he just learned, Robert patted Oliver on the shoulder as he got up and returned to his stateroom and Sara.

While some part of Oliver noted that his father had left him and gone back to his girlfriend's little sister, the rest of him was quickly becoming filled with self-loathing. Was this part of what Laurel had to suffer through, dating him; being with someone that she loved, yet, who was incapable of meeting the responsibilities of an actual adult relationship?

As he stumbled back to his stateroom, Oliver went over his relationship with Laurel; they had met their first week of first grade and despite the inherent views of boys and girls that age, had become good friends. Laurel was always up for whatever scheme he or Tommy dreamt up, no matter how much trouble she would inevitably get into with her father over it.

Now that he thought about it; he and Laurel had never even talked about whether or not they wanted to start going out. It was just; one day they would be hanging out, the three of them; him, Tommy and Laurel and all of a sudden he and Laurel would make excuses to spend a little bit of time together afterwards. As their relationship progressed, Oliver had stopped going out to party with Tommy as much, in fact the last time he could really remember going out and shutting down a club was the night he and Tommy met Samantha, the pregnancy scare had scared him straight so to speak, shortly after that Laurel had started her effort to get him to agree to them getting their own place.

Oliver came out of his musings and realized that he had been mechanically packing his belonging back into the small suitcase that he had brought along with him for the trip. Once he had finished re-packing the small bag, Oliver got his suits and packed them back into the garment bag he had used to bring them onto the yacht.

After Oliver was finished with his packing he couldn't keep the thoughts from filling his head. Now that he thought about it, Sara had been spending a large amount of time at the Queen mansion. When asked, Sara had said it was because she was talking to his Dad about an internship with Queen Consolidated, but now it seemed like, the younger Lance sister was having a bit more personal relationship.

Oliver finished packing, and was in the process of doing a last minute check of his stateroom to make sure that he wasn't going to be leaving anything behind, as he doubted that he would be setting foot on this ship for a long time to come, he saw the self-portrait that Laurel had given him before he got on the Queen's Gambit, against the lamp on the side table. Oliver had placed it there so that it was the last thing he saw before he went to sleep, and the first thing he saw when he woke up. Snatching the picture up, Oliver slipped it in the pocket of his shirt, before grabbing his suitcase and garment bag off of his bed and heading out of his state room.

As he headed down the hallway, Oliver saw his father, heading towards him. While he didn't want to speak with his father, Oliver was resigned to this confrontation and slowed down as his father approached him. Before his father could say anything, Oliver beat him to the punch.

"What do you want Dad?!" Oliver asked, still angry.

"I was just coming to inform you that we will being pulling into the port in Florence, OR. I've called one of our subsidiaries there, and arranged for a car to be made available for you once you get to the dock." Robert said business like, reading in his son's face that any reconciliation, would be long in coming. As Oliver nodded his head, he noticed that his Father had something in his hand.

"What's that?" Oliver asked with slightly less hostility, honestly curious about why his father would be carrying a small leather bound notebook while telling him that his departure was being planned.

"This is something I was hoping to talk to you about, now it will have to be something that we discuss after I get back." As he was talking, Robert held out the hand that was holding the book towards Oliver.

"If, god forbid, something happens to me, not that a really think it would, use a source of indirect heat on the pages and you'll understand some of what I was trying to accomplish. If I don't make it back, I'm going to need you to use this book to right the wrongs that I've either perpetrated or turned a blind eye to in our city. I'm sorry son, but I'm not the man you thought I was. I haven't helped our city, made it better, I've failed it, as well as you and your sister. If I make it back, I hope to be the man the two of you think I am, the kind of father you deserve." With this, Robert took Oliver to him and hugged him, until Oliver started wiggling to be let go.

Stepping back, Oliver couldn't describe the look that was on his Father's face as he stared at the other man. Decided that he didn't have time to ponder any longer, Oliver slipped the book into his backpack and continued to the ship's helm, to talk to the captain about his getting off the ship and back to what was normal, at least for him. Little did Oliver know, how much his life was about to change.

**A/N 3:** Please Review.


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